Flawed Theology

One of the common claims about the Bible is that it is inerrant --in other words, it is the divinely inspired word of God and every word of it is true.   This notion is false, and it's actually quite easy to disprove via the thousands of early biblical manuscripts in our possession today.   The ramifications of this are two-fold. If there are errors and mistakes in the Bible, then can we trust it? Would an omnipotent and omniscient God (who is SO powerful that he created the whole cosmos, millions of earth species and the entire human race) not bother to preserve the word that he divinely inspired? Especially if it were a matter of eternal life and death for his beloved children? The Bible was Copied by Hand In antiquity, there were no printing presses or copying machines.  Any material (not just the Bible) obviously had to be copied by hand by scribes.  Comparisons between manuscripts show that scribes made errors all the time--spelling errors, word switching, line skipping, or

The basic premise of the Christian religion is so ingrained in people (either through childhood indoctrination or cultural ubiquity) that we rarely stop to think about whether it actually makes sense.   Let's recap the core theology of mainstream Christianity: God made the universe, humans, heaven, and hell (creation). Though God supposedly made humans to be "perfect", they "fell" at the very first test.  As a result, humans are now so depraved that every human born thereafter deserves eternal suffering in hell. This is called "original sin". God needs continual blood sacrifice in order to forgive sins (usually animals though occasionally human).  In order to save humanity from hell, God sent Jesus to be the last sacrifice.  To achieve salvation, all a human must do is believe in God and Jesus. There are so many reasons why this does not make sense. We'll explore them below. If the creation story didn't happen, then there is no original sin and

Thanks to Genetically Modified Skeptic for being the  inspiration  behind this post.  Christians are divided on whether homosexuality is a sin.  The most literal interpretations of the Bible consider homosexuality to be a sin, whereas progressive Christians choose not to believe this.  Whichever side of the issue a Christian lands on, they have some explaining to do. First, let's establish whether the Bible SAYS homosexuality is a sin.  Paul says in 1 Cor 6:9-10: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. This is a clear statement that homosexuality is a sin.  Since this is from the New Testament, this cannot merely be waved away as an Old Testament law that we now don't have to follow. Now let's start with the Christian w

I recently documented some of the objections I had to Christianity growing up. While these are hardly unique, I did generate these in my own mind without any outside sources.  If a 10-year-old can poke holes in the Christian religion, then how well does it actually hold up? Faith: The definition of faith is believing without evidence, or in the presence of counter evidence.  I always thought this was suspect. You could justify believing literally anything using faith, even things that aren’t true.  Not only that, but every religion requires faith of its members, and every religion can't be right.  Therefore, faith simply is not a reliable path to truth. Because the Bible tells me so: Why should I trust the Bible over any other religious text? Has it been demonstrated to be trustworthy? "Because the Bible tells me so" is not a good reason.  Circular reasoning Human reason: I remember my dad constantly warning me against using my human reason, and the Bible does say that

In case you didn’t read my first post about my journey into atheism, here is the gist. I had taken advantage of the time away from physical church during COVID to fully research religion and the Bible--the good, the bad, and the ugly. I came out the other side of it as an atheist. I hadn’t told anyone yet, not even my husband. But things were getting dicey at home. I was pulling away from him and lashing out. I loved him, of course, but I felt like he didn’t even know who I really was. If he found out, would he still love me? Would he want a divorce? One Sunday morning, he was watching virtual church and folding clothes. I told him I was going for a walk. As I made my way around the neighborhood, I listened to a podcast about the shaky evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. With each step I became more and more convinced that I had to tell my husband that day. I texted him, “When I get back, let’s talk.” When I returned, we went out on the deck to talk without the kids present. I s

I just turned 37 and feel like I only recently discovered my own voice. I was raised Missouri-Synod Lutheran--the most conservative kind of Lutheran. My whole family is extremely dedicated to their faith. They go to church every week, volunteer for all sorts of things, read their Bibles regularly, etc. I have an uncle who is a pastor in the LCMS church, and four cousins who are all neatly-conforming Christians. One of them is now married to a pastor. My sister is also very devout, and although she converted to another denomination when she got married, she is probably even more dedicated to learning about God and loving Jesus than she was before. And then there’s me. As far back as I can remember, I had doubts, questions , and reservations. I tried asking my mom a question once about a logical conundrum I had thought up (I admit I didn’t phrase it well), and although she didn’t even understand what I was asking, she kept repeating “No, no, no, no!” In other words, Stop what you a